Published: Saturday, March 30, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, March 29, 2013 at 5:37 p.m.

Sammie Shein walked up to Beth Bockoven, operations manager at Hands On!, with a big smile on her face. The 5-year-old pointed to her wrist, which was wrapped in a colorful, beaded bracelet.

Shein had made the bracelet Friday at one of the science tables set up for Nano Days at the downtown Hendersonville children's museum.

“She loved making that bracelet,” said her mom, Walli Ann Wisniewski.

Kids meandered around the gallery and took part in science experiments that involved Nano technology, or the science of the very small.

At one location, kids combined water and a polymer to make hydro gels. At another table, they turned salt water into gummy capsules.

Kids could put on 3-D glasses to look at images such as butterflies and sorted balls of varying sizes. There was a molecule cart and a growing giant chameleon that was measured all week by children who wrote their measurements down in a log at the display.

The science displays and activities will continue until April 6.

Hands On! applied to be a part of Nano Days, which is put on by the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network and funded by a grant from The National Science Foundation.

“We are just thrilled that for the second year in a row, we were awarded these kits,” Bockhoven said. “This gives us the opportunity for us to bring something cutting-edge and unique to Hendersonville.”

That's exactly what draws Wisniewski, a college professor in Asheville, to the children's museum.

<p>Sammie Shein walked up to Beth Bockoven, operations manager at Hands On!, with a big smile on her face. The 5-year-old pointed to her wrist, which was wrapped in a colorful, beaded bracelet. </p><p>Shein had made the bracelet Friday at one of the science tables set up for Nano Days at the downtown Hendersonville children's museum. </p><p>“She loved making that bracelet,” said her mom, Walli Ann Wisniewski. </p><p>Kids meandered around the gallery and took part in science experiments that involved Nano technology, or the science of the very small. </p><p>At one location, kids combined water and a polymer to make hydro gels. At another table, they turned salt water into gummy capsules. </p><p>Kids could put on 3-D glasses to look at images such as butterflies and sorted balls of varying sizes. There was a molecule cart and a growing giant chameleon that was measured all week by children who wrote their measurements down in a log at the display.</p><p>The science displays and activities will continue until April 6.</p><p>Hands On! applied to be a part of Nano Days, which is put on by the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network and funded by a grant from The National Science Foundation. </p><p>“We are just thrilled that for the second year in a row, we were awarded these kits,” Bockhoven said. “This gives us the opportunity for us to bring something cutting-edge and unique to Hendersonville.”</p><p>That's exactly what draws Wisniewski, a college professor in Asheville, to the children's museum. </p><p>“They do a wonderful job here teaching,” she said. </p><p>Reach Millwood at 828-694-7881 or at joey.millwood@blueridgenow.com.</p>